Gang busted for fraud of Rs 3700 crore
By Prempal Singh
Smashing an online fraud to the tune of Rs 3,700 crore, the UP police have arrested three persons supposed to have duped practically 6.5 lakh people through an online website, police said on Thursday night.
Busting one of the biggest internet frauds, the Special Task Force (STF) of UP law enforcement arrested the trio of Anubhav Mittal, Sridhar Prasad and Mahesh Dayal from Sector 63 in Noida on Wednesday and grabbed practically Rs 500 crore.
“The accused used to run a portal ‘socialtrade.biz’ under which an investor had to pay anything between Rs 5,750 to Rs 57,500 in the industry’s account to be the affiliate and earn Rs 5 per click.
“Registered under the name of Flashing Info Solutions Pvt Limited. in Noida, they used to constantly change the portal’s name. So much they defrauded over six lakh people collecting around Rs 3,700 crores, ” Superintendent of Police (Uttar Pradesh STF) Triveni Singh, told IANS.
Mittal, said to be the kingpin, holds a B.Tech degree and lives in Ghaziabad. Prasad is from Visakhapatnam and Dayal is from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.
Released in August 2015, the portal offered four different ‘packages’ to the traders to earn money. Following paying the money to the organization, the investors were asked to like web pages and click on the links they were delivered.
“The company claimed it earned Rs 6 for each and every click and gave Rs 5 of it to the investors. However, the links sent by the company were fake”, said the officer, adding police were looking for others suspected to be involved in the scams.
Besides seizing Rs five hundred crores from the bank, police have seized various documents such as the balance linen of the company, set of directors and other representatives and set of investors.
The STF has also educated the RBI (Reserve Bank of India), the Income Tax department and market regulator SEBI about the case.
Source: Business-Standard